(dī-nam´ik nat) (n.) A type of NAT in which a private IP address is mapped to a public IP address drawing from a pool of registered (public) IP addresses. Typically, the NAT router in a network will keep a table of registered IP addresses, and when a private IP address requests access to the Internet, the router chooses an IP address from the table that is not at the time being used by another private IP address. Dynamic NAT helps to secure a network as it masks the internal configuration of a private network and makes it difficult for someone outside the network to monitor individual usage patterns. Another advantage of dynamic NAT is that it allows a private network to use private IP addresses that are invalid on the Internet but useful as internal addresses.